The Not-To-Do List: 9 Habits to Stop Now

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“Not-to-do” lists are often more effective than to-do lists for upgrading performance.

The reason is simple: what you don’t do determines what you can do.

Here are nine stressful and common habits that entrepreneurs and office workers should strive to eliminate. The bullets are followed by more detailed descriptions. Focus on one or two at a time, just as you would with high-priority to-do items. I’ve worded them in no-to-do action form:

1. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers
Feel free to surprise others, but don’t be surprised. It just results in unwanted interruption and poor negotiating position. Let it go to voicemail, and consider using a service like GrandCentral (you can listen to people leaving voicemail) or Simulscribe (receive voicemails as e-mail).

2. Do not e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at night
The former scrambles your priorities and plans for the day, and the latter just gives you insomnia. E-mail can wait until 10am, after you’ve completed at least one of your critical to-do items…

3. Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end time
If the desired outcome is defined clearly with a stated objective and agenda listing topics/questions to cover, no meeting or call should last more than 30 minutes. Request them in advance so you “can best prepare and make good use of the time together.”

4. Do not let people ramble
Forget “how’s it going?” when someone calls you. Stick with “what’s up?” or “I’m in the middle of getting something out, but what’s going on?” A big part of GTD is GTP — Getting To the Point.
5. Do not check e-mail constantly — “batch” and check at set times only
I belabor this point enough. Get off the cocaine pellet dispenser and focus on execution of your top to-do’s instead of responding to manufactured emergencies. Set up a strategic autoresponder and check twice or thrice daily.

6. Do not over-communicate with low-profit, high-maintenance customers
There is no sure path to success, but the surest path to failure is trying to please everyone. Do an 80/20 analysis of your customer base in two ways–which 20% are producing 80%+ of my profit, and which 20% are consuming 80%+ of my time? Then put the loudest and least productive on autopilot by citing a change in company policies. Send them an e-mail with new rules as bullet points: number of permissible phone calls, e-mail response time, minimum orders, etc. Offer to point them to another provider if they can’t conform to the new policies.

7. Do not work more to fix overwhelm — prioritize
If you don’t prioritize, everything seems urgent and important. If you define the single most important task for each day, almost nothing seems urgent or important. Oftentimes, it’s just a matter of letting little bad things happen (return a phone call late and apologize, pay a small late fee, lose an unreasonable customer, etc.) to get the big important things done. The answer to overwhelm is not spinning more plates — or doing more — it’s defining the few things that can really fundamentally change your business and life.

8. Do not carry a cellphone or Crackberry 24/7
Take at least one day off of digital leashes per week. Turn them off or, better still, leave them in the garage or in the car. I do this on at least Saturday, and I recommend you leave the phone at home if you go out for dinner. So what if you return a phone call an hour later or the next morning? As one reader put it to a miffed co-worker who worked 24/7 and expected the same: “I’m not the president of the US. No one should need me at 8pm at night. OK, you didn’t get a hold of me. But what bad happened?” The answer? Nothing.
9. Do not expect work to fill a void that non-work relationships and activities should
Work is not all of life. Your co-workers shouldn’t be your only friends. Schedule life and defend it just as you would an important business meeting. Never tell yourself “I’ll just get it done this weekend.” Review Parkinson’s Law in 4HWW and force yourself to cram within tight hours so your per-hour productivity doesn’t fall through the floor. Focus, get the critical few done, and get out. E-mailing all weekend is no way to spend the little time you have on this planet.
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It’s hip to focus on getting things done, but it’s only possible once we remove the constant static and distraction. If you have trouble deciding what to do, just focus on not doing. Different means, same end.

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362 comments on “The Not-To-Do List: 9 Habits to Stop Now”

Another great blog post. I am amazed at what happens when you look at life from a different angle. I would never think to develop a “not to do” list. Now that I have seen yours and I am working on my “not to do” list, I am seeing all the time I can save each day. Keep up the great posts and innovative insights.

Great advice Tim. Just by following your tips about batching emails, avoiding time-wasters and prioritizing, I have saved 2-3 hours per day in work – that’s about 10-15 hours per week. Next step: getting the hell out of the office!

This is the 2nd time I’ve seen you mention Grand Central. The first time was in the “Doing the impossible article…” about getting paper out of your life, not checking voicemail, etc.

I went to Grand Central to sign up, but it’s in beta and you can only join right now if someone refers you. Can you share how you where able to get in the beta?

It’s something I want to do, and would be the third thing from the “Doing the impossible…” article you recommend that I will have done. I already signed up for the remote control mail service by Earth Class Mail. The jury is still out because I haven’t been on it long enough, but early results are promising. I also got removed from any possible mailing list I could track down with the help of DMAConsumers.org. So thanks for the good advice there, and now hoping I can check out Grand Central also.

Tim, agree with all your points – and I’m pretty sure all of these and more are in your book. If you’re reading and haven’t bought it? Don’t wait – give Crown Publishing more money.

The only part of the 5th principle I have a problem with now is:

“Set up a strategic autoresponder and check twice or thrice daily.”

Tim, with your book on the bestseller now, this automated response just fills my inbox with crap.

Here’s an alternative: Just check it at those times, and respond at those times. If they’re expecting a response quicker, they’ll get in touch with you via phone, if they can’t… obviously it’s not important to them and can wait a few hours.

I recently tested this approach with my client, and if it’s their high priority and not some delegation without merit, then they’ll certainly make it known to you.

Cool.

Donovan

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Hi Donovan,

Good alternative. Here are a few others: 1) Send all of them a single read-receipt e-mail notifying them of the new schedule, 2) Put this “I check and respond only at…” at the bottom of your outgoing e-mail in the signature, 3) Set your e-mail program to only send one autoresponse to each contact per week.

Drew: Regarding Grand Central, just sign up via the ‘reserve’ link. They’re letting people sign up in small groups, so you’ll probably get your invite code before too long. I’ve been using it for a month or two now.

I read something interesting on Creating Passionate Users the other day. Kathy quotes Time Magazine, “Patricia Wallace, a techno-psychologist,…believes part of the allure of e-mail–for adults as well as teens–is similar to that of a slot machine.â€¨”You have intermittent, variable reinforcement,” she explains. “You are not sure you are going to get a reward every time or how often you will, so you keep pulling that handle.” Intermittent rewards result in distraction and ‘addiction’ more than continuous, guaranteed rewards do.

Interestingly enough, nearly all of my ‘not-to-dos’ fall under this intermittent rewards category. I’d add, “Don’t let your life become a slot machine.”

GrandCentral was open-beta before. Perhaps that changed when they were acquired by Google. Or they just got popular enough to be running out of phone numbers.

Be careful (and not just because Google knows so much about you already), GC was built to make you MORE accessible, not less. Having one number that rings my cell, house, and work phones isn’t always a good thing. But their other features make up for it if you use them.

I can’t think of a good way to hand out invites, or I’d share. Actually, I can, but it’s more work for the rest of you. Below are some links for some invites — beware! If you click ‘sign up’ on the invite, you HAVE to finish signing up then! Once clicked, the invitation is ‘used’ and you can’t go back and finish later with the same invite.

Probably best if you post a comment that you’ve used an invite number, so others don’t waste time.

You have been a revelation, Tim. I am slowly going to be incorporating many of your suggestions into my practice as, quite frankly, it is the only way to operate in today’s world. Thank you for the great business ‘bible’ I now keep bedside.

One thing I would add. Don’t try to save everything. Save documents you think you might need on your computer and then throw the hard copies away. They create way too much clutter and then you have to waste more time just organizing them on your desk. Throw things away. You can always print stuff out later if you really need it. Or just read it on your computer.

1. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers
GREAT one I never do this anyway amazing how they never leave a message!!!
2. Do not e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at night
E-mail is a touchy subject! With my job I am the one that is connected to a color printer hence if there is a meeting at 10 am and I havenâ€™ checked my e-mail Iâ€™ll lose my job okay get written up but both are bad news! As a sales assistant itâ€™s required to handle all emergencys no matter what time of the day –
3. Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end time
GREAT one again! Have an agenda even if itâ€™s just bullet points!
4. Do not let people ramble
I love the Iâ€™m in the middle of something to go out whatâ€™s going on!

5. Do not check e-mail constantlyâ€”â€œbatchâ€? and check at set times only
as number 2 states I have to check e-mail for packages coming in I forgot to add if I donâ€™t response the AE will come up to me asking me if I got the e-mail and if I could check it to print there document! I so wish I could only check e-mail 1 time an hour!
6. Do not over-communicate with low-profit, high-maintenance customers
they just talked about this! You got to be greedy here! Great call!
7. Do not work more to fix overwhelmâ€”prioritize
lol maybe thatâ€™s why everything is urgent! Lol the joy of radio! I have a hard time prioritizing I even have my boss help me itâ€™s all important to me.. itâ€™s the little thigns that get looked over and that causes issues in the long run! !
8. Do not carry a cellphone or Crackberry 24/7, seven days a week
lol maybe I should carry one or at least answer it once in a while! Lol this one is easy!

9. Do not expect work to fill a void that non-work relationships and activities should
great one I love my job so this is hard! I have passion for it but I love my partner more!
What other no-noâ€™s would you add to the list?
10. over think the simple things! It can be hard when something comes up and gets you thinking but a lot of times people over think what ever and it turns into a not so good outcome!

10) Reading all kind of crappy news that don’t bring any value to your personal and professional life (papers, web, etc). Mostly it’s a crap and you just add clutter in your reality.
11) Reading blogs.

I suggest to do something similar as with emails. First combine blogs you read in groups. Allocate two-three time sets during the week when you can read them. Here the time duration is important, I can recommend 15-20 minutes, two-three times a week, afternoon, after lunch break. Be strict with it (Parkinson law again). Make a clear decision based on the name and then first three sentences whether you need it or not. Try to think about it as a potential time-waster. The author should not only write his thoughts to the world, but understand that this will take your time and attention, and if the author doesn’t put much attention to a clear title and first three sentences, it definitely is not done in the text itself. Don’t read everything even of your favorite authors, usually (Pareto’s law 8) there are only few highlights in your RSS reader over the week, and it’s never urgent.

Hm. Nice tips. One thing, though I do carry my cellphone 24/7. I agree with your rationale, and I’ve seen it a lot, but personally, it’s just a commitment I try to make to my friends? To be there for them as much as possible. For my close friends of course. Just wanted to share my thoughts, yeah. Maybe an alternative viewpoint.

A non-negotiable for me is to have a completely empty inbox on Friday afternoon before leaving the office. I use GTD (getting things done) outlook addon to help me organize my Outlook and at the very least I snooze an email until Monday morning. With a clear inbox you can go into the weekend with a clear head.

Challenge a few co-workers to see who can do this as many weeks in a row. The accountability guilt works well for me.

Thanks for the great info! I signed up for youmail.com a while ago and really love what it has to offer but in my opinion the software is incomplete. I would be very interested in checking out grandcentral as well. Anyone got any invites please send to andrewlhoward(a)gmail.com I think it would be a perfect tool since I travel out of the country constantly (BTW, for fun not for business) The 4HWW is a wonderful thing!

Another service worth trying is callwave.com (I don’t work for them, and look forward to also trying GrandCentral). The service allows you to receive voicemails as text messages and email, revealing the Caller ID info, and transcribing, as best as it can, what the caller said. It also allows you to play the voicemail from your email/web browser… which is nice if you are cranking with headphones on and just want to quickly hear what the hell the person is talking about, reply with a text message, and avoid the conversational masturbation. 🙂

I picked up on GrandCentral before they were acquired and have been using it all summer. When Google acquired them, they made it invite only for now and also removed the MP3 ringer feature, probably because of copyright issues.

I don’t have a landline, so it doesn’t make me more accessible per se. What it does do for me is give me options for screening calls, automatically forwarding certain people to voice mail, playing a ‘not in service’ ring to people I don’t want contacting me again, listen to a message while it is being recorded, and accessing my voicemail from the web (useful because my current work is in a dead spot)

If you’re trying to change for the better one of the things you have to do is find new friends or mentors who lift you up and not keep you down. At the top of my Not to Do list is associate with the people who perpetuate and enable bad habits of any kind whether it be bemoaning their shitty jobs or people who just like to get by and not change their situations. Even spending time alone and working on your dreams is preferable in my opinion. For a dose of inspiration I recommend watching American Beauty 🙂

I would add to the distractions of cell phones, crackberries and email the most annoying of all… instant messengers. I’m a technical guy and IM is a big part of how I communicate with people. That said, when I am “in the zone” and trying to get something done IM can be a huge distraction. Simply logout of your IM client and get your work done. Then log back in.

Hi, Tim– I just did a “To Don’t” list 6 weeks ago for the first time and it’s been amazing for my home and work life because if it’s on my to-don’t list, well, I don’t “do” those things. I had several similarities to your not to do list, but I’ll add one from mine that’s saved me the most, enough so that I’ve cut out my overtime in the past month.

***Don’t volunteer for routine assignments.*** In my daily work, I’m always known as the one who’s responsible, dependable, reliable. If everything falls apart, the boss comes to me to bail things out, usually at the last minute. I found that if I volunteer for routine (boring) assignments, I end up stuck with twice the work and much of it on my own time–what I volunteered for PLUS what someone else volunteered for but didn’t do and it became an emergency.

Do not refresh RSS feeds. Read through it once – if it didn’t hit your feed list, you will catch it next time you read it. Reloading that page is like the rat hitting the lever for a food pellet … sporadic reward for compulsive activity that generates little tangible benefits.

And like a true hypocrite, I found this post after hitting ‘reload’ on my own RSS reader on the second refresh. Must break this habit. 🙂

Here’s one: Do not do something “for as long as it takes” — decide beforehand how much time you’re going to spend (e.g. 3 minutes for an email, 20 minutes for a blog post, 30 minutes to practice the first mov’t of a Beethoven Sonata). Nothing gets you focused like a deadline.

Put people who don’t respect your time on a VERY VERY short leash. I recently had an (ex) close friend to pull a ‘no call, no show’ for a celebratory weekend she was supposed to spend at my place. She never called, and emailed me on Tuesday to thank me for being patient with her transition back to the US (she had been living overseas for the past 9 months). (!) After careful consideration, I’m still her friend, she just doesn’t have access to me in the way she once did. Period. I don’t play that.

As Dan Kennedy says, “People who are perpetually late don’t respect themselves – or you and your time.”

And, as Maya Angelou says, “People will show you who they are – believe them the first time.”

This is GOLD. Cuts back to the core message of your book which I believe is the most valuable advice you provide.

I have been implementing these strategies with great success. I have 80/20’d my business, adopted Parkinson’s Law as a mantra, delegated like crazy and eliminated interruption and info overload wherever possible.

The result? My business has never been better and I have never been as relaxed and happy. I have gone from stressed out workaholic to (relatively) blissed out business owner with a whole lot of holidays booked in and time to burn on more important things.

I have been documenting the progress on perfectlifeproject.typepad.com

Hi Tim, read your book in 2 days and loved it. You mentioned there’s somewhere on your website where you can find out how to learn a language in 3 months, I’ve searched and can’t find it. Can you help?

Jeff Rivera
(Author of FOREVER MY LADY – Warner Books/Grand Central)

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Hi Jeff!

That article should be under “articles” in the reader-only section of the http://www.fourhourworkweek.com site. Hope that helps! I’ll be putting up a language-learning post soon as well…

I’ve been letting most of my phone calls go to voice mail for years. I only answer if it is a call I want to take. It works very well for me and I recommend this strategy to anyone who wishes to simplify their life and make more free time.

Hi Tim:
First of all, I want to thank you for inspiring us all with being an example of someone who challenges assumptions and turns them on their heads in areas of productivity – heck.. in truly living life.

I hope you get to read and respond to this post; I have a question I was hoping you would be able to answer:

Considering the topic of “not to-do list” …

1. where does reading blogs or reviewing informative topics on the internet come in? I have found myself at times, just reading the comments on your blog as well as the many entries (and referred links) you have on your site… and they’re great reading… even some useful/interesting info in the comments from the community..

2. do you ever get sucked into reading all your fans’ comments and emails?

3. there are some things you can delegate to v.a.’s… but what about responding to your fans?

thanks for reading (if you really are reading this 🙂 ).

Professor X

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Hi Prof. X!

Good questions:

1. I read a few blogs for fun (see my blogroll), but I generally don’t try to stay “up-to-date” on anything. I like to catch up when I have to as opposed to keeping up because I feel obligated.

2. I enjoy reading the comments, and it usually doesn’t take too much time. If I can’t do it, I’ll have a VA handle it. The great part about this growing community is that, if I’m not available, readers can often help each other.

3. Great question. “Responding to fans” is actually a broad category, so I break it down to more specifics, such as “web inquiry”, “basic question answered in book”, “personal coaching” (which I don’t do at this point), “business partnership request”, etc. I’ll have VAs answer anything that doesn’t require me to answer. For me to do otherwise would be a bit hypocritical! I still answer a lot of reader e-mail, but with the number of books in the world, I can’t always answer long how-to questions. Fortunately, the blog and forums are an even better resource. 20 single mothers who have implemented 4HWW, for example, will be able to help a single mother more than I ever could.

On number 1, I’d go even further by saying that not all phone calls should be answered immediately. Let them go to voice mail unless it’s the caller is important for what you are doing right then. Same with cellphones, use different ring-tones to know quickly whether you should answer or not. And your friends will understand if you need some time for yourself, unless they are greedy bastards 🙂

1. Don’t allow yourself to be greenwashed
2. Stop typing on your laptop when someone comes up to talk to you
3. Don’t wait for your employer to train you – we are ALL self employed!
4. Don’t think of a pink elephant!
5. Don’t publish lists that start with “don’t”

Love your stuff, Tim. The more I read here at the blog and in the book, the more I realize that the overarching common thread between the 4HWW and what I’ve been teaching is that if you want to change your life, you have to be willing to strap a set on, and do things that feel uncomfortable or seem odd to other people. If you do what the masses do, you’ll have a life like they have. It takes balls to do something a little different, make a different choice and therefore, get a different result for your life.
~Monica

Tim – thanks for the reminder! Overcoming my OCED (obsessive compulsive e-mail disorder) has been hard, but I’m doing it, and getting priority work done each day before 11:30 a.m. because I’m not constantly checking e-mail. The result is less stress and more focus. Again, thanks!!

10. Stop joining social networks. Every blog these days is doubling as a “social network”, which requires you to, you guessed it, be social. Being a part of 20-40 different “networks” really wastes your time in many ways.

Great tips. I love your book’s section on how to achieve MORE by doing LESS. (I love every other section, too, of course.)

But since you started your post with “… and office workers…” I thought I’d mention the obvious: often the BOSS will not ALLOW their employees to take such steps.

Boss: “Hey, you can’t ignore your emails or phone calls! That’s bad customer service! Respond right away!”
Employee: “But the constant interruptions are making me LESS productive! By batching my emails and responding to them at specific times, I’m able to work more effectively and provide even BETTER service to customers!”
Boss: “That’s not how we do things here. We want employees to be open to change, but only to changes WE dictate. Now quit thinking for yourself and answer your emails!”

Having read your book, I know what you’re advice would be to employees in such a situation.

I guess my point is that office workers and other employees reading your tips should not assume that implementing all of them will be easy just because, you know, they’re FANTASTIC. 😉

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Hi B!

This is most true. It’s a matter of trial-and-error and taking small steps that can be leveraged into big steps once you do the proof of concept. Once per day might make the boss twitch, but once per hour might not. Just get moving in the right direction…

Hi Tim, well I’ve hired my first outsourcing firm for virtual assistance. I’ll let you know how it goes, so far so good. I can use the help so they are affordable. I’m working on checking my email once a week although I’m a daily email checking addict. (trying to break from that).

I’m struggling with the ‘don’t email first thing in the morning’ thing. I work in SF, for a company based on the east coast. By the time I wake up and start working, they’re well into their days and regardless of how much I remind them that there is a time difference (they seem to forget this regularly), they continue to treat me as if I’m a sleep-in slacker if I don’t jump on their requests at 8 am. Thoughts?

This is the way I’ve always worked, but I wasn’t confident enough to encourage my teammates to do the same. I really needed a push to get around to it, because their lag is mine. Thanks for writing this article and showing me how silly I was being.